Scrap Metal (XBLA) Review - PAGE 1

Most of us haven’t touched a top-down racer since the early ’90s, especially when the entire racing genre is moving toward realism and immersion. This sub-genre isn’t exactly dead though.

On March 10, Slick Entertainment’s Scrap Metal hits Xbox LIVE Arcade, the second entry in Microsoft Game Studios’ ongoing Block Party event. Toy Soldiers, a World War I tower defense game, kicked off the event last week, and Scrap Metal follows up with their fresh take on top-down racing.

So what is the game about? Imagine if you will, a shinier R.C. Pro-Am with chainsaws and more firepower. Each vehicle you earn comes with its own deadly weapon, and various power-ups can be found throughout each mission, littered over the track for your benefit. Along with the obligatory Nitro (speed), you've got health, weapon boosts, and bonus shields to help you stay alive longer than the competition.

As you progress through the single-player campaign, you'll receive new cars by dominating opponents on the track, whether by speed, with gunfire, or any other ridiculously brutal weapon you can imagine. If it's automatic, you'll find it attached to some car or another. Lighter vehicles generally rely on range, while heavier cars may require more intimate contact to do heavy damage – as with the station wagon sporting a buzz saw.

The most common way of earning new vehicles is by defeating the bosses that drive them. Each boss character makes his or her home in one of the eight tracks available, but you’ll have to earn the right to face them by first participating in the events (missions) they hold. Every track comes with several missions, ranging from races to demo derbies to escorts. Every track differs from the last, and every mission type may require different vehicles for optimal performance. Some test your driving ability by removing all weapons or put you in a specialized vehicle to escort a VIP unit. More common types are elimination, demolition derby (think Twisted Metal), timed survival, and plain ol’ racing, weapons and all.

The garage serves as a hub, where the player can check newly-acquired vehicles in the Junkyard and set them out for display. Every vehicle can be customized to suit your personal tastes, with a modest collection of decals, color combinations, and accessories. Each car also has five stats than can be upgraded, including the usual speed and grip; firepower and armor also come into play, since the game is really 80 percent mayhem over 20 percent actual racing. Roughly.

Every car handles differently and sports a unique mounted weapon, making every vehicle worth trying out at least once or twice. By the time you’ve unlocked the fifth track, however, you’ll have acquired way more cars than you can display, as the garage only allows four vehicles out at once. On top of that, any changes made to a vehicle are lost once you’ve switched it out for another, even the upgrades you paid for. Dropping customizations is one thing, but stat upgrades cost money; should you decide to bring an old favorite back, all its previous upgrades will need to be repurchased.

Upgrades also get progressively pricier as you go, and there are many upgrade levels per stat. You can keep an old car and just continue improving it, but newer vehicles added to the Junkyard often boast higher base stats. You’ll regularly wind up in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between a car you’ve poured money into and a new one with better statistics. So why bother upgrading at all? Because not upgrading makes you a soft target for other players. Easier missions can always be replayed for more money, but farming is rarely the high point in any game.

Scrap Metal offers a simple Directional control scheme in addition to the more advanced Remote Control setup, best suited for players who are familiar with top-down racers. The former is the “recommended” setting, and for plenty good reason: this game is hard. The first two tracks feel like an easy introduction to gameplay, gently easing the player into the groove. By the fourth or fifth track, you’ll start feeling the familiar frustrations attached to just about every racing game on the market. Don’t even mention the bloodthirsty AI – thank goodness they can’t use power-ups.

Luckily, if your car flips over or spins out, a cue for the Y button pops up at the bottom of your screen. This basically allows you to quickly "reset" your vehicle, dropping it back on four wheels a short distance from where it got stuck. It may sound cheap to start, and most racers tend to punish the player for bad driving. Yet the automatic reset works remarkably well in Scrap Metal, as most races are more about taking out the competition than outrunning it. Other drivers tend to focus on reducing your car to scrap by any means possible, so if their sights are set on you, you'd be pretty much screwed without that Y button. In other words, the reset option usually pops up when you're in a real jam, like being gangbanged by a pack of bulldozers.

On the flip side, every deathtrap-on-wheels is surprisingly balanced, and you’ll rarely find yourself thinking, “Man, that monster truck is so OP!” Whether you’re behind the wheel of a coup or semi, every vehicle responds differently, and the weapons they carry possess equal diversity. Some weapons are limited by cooldowns, such as the flamethrower, while weaker guns or bladed weapons can be activated without restrictions.

Scrap Metal can’t claim originality, as it borrows heavily from existing material. Still, excellent execution and presentation make this game incredibly fun and easy on the eyes. After all, when something (or someone) blows up every few seconds, those explosions had better look good. As for lasting appeal, the campaign should keep you occupied for a good amount of hours, though there is little replay value in it. Multiplayer, on the other hand, is worth going back for. Five modes are available for both splitscreen and online play, letting you go head to head against three other players.

Anyone who enjoys vehicular combat will definitely like what Scrap Metal has to offer. A few rough spots leave room for improvement, but overall, this is an amazingly entertaining game.

Comments

"gangbanged by a pack of bulldozers"...buh-h-h-h. I had a nightmare like that once.

Sounds cool, but seriously weak about the upgrades. Guess your garage is in a really bad neighborhood, and every time you leave a tricked-out car parked there long enough to take a different one out on the track, hoodlums swarm in and steal it all. Fail.

"gangbanged by a pack of bulldozers"...buh-h-h-h. I had a nightmare like that once.

Sounds cool, but seriously weak about the upgrades. Guess your garage is in a really bad neighborhood, and every time you leave a tricked-out car parked there long enough to take a different one out on the track, hoodlums swarm in and steal it all. Fail.

Well, your garage DOES double as a junkyard, which you'll rarely find in a good neighborhood.

They've done some talking about Easter Eggs lurking in the game as well so I'm curious about finding a few of those. I would be stupidly thrilled to find a mockup of an RC Pro-Am vehicle done up with retro graphics but I have no idea what's actually lurking in there.